Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 02, 2014 9:21 am Hi, my partner and I are in the process of designing our facade for our new home. We LOVE the look of Timber Frames. We have heard some bad things about the upkeep and maintenance of the timber frames. Apparently they can swell also? This is our first time building and it is also our first home so we really have no clue whatsoever and no experience with timber frames. If anybody can give us a heads up or have any positive or negative experiences we would greatly appreciate your input. Cheers Re: Timber Frames 2May 02, 2014 12:45 pm ive had 2 houses with timber frames and that whole thing about wood swelling is normally due to water damage but any good home should be built water tight and the mositure level in the wood frames should be tested during the build, you can also get them retested before your maintance period is up to ensure no water is getting in. but no maintance if your talking about internal timber frames, if your talking about timber cladding then yes there is maintance. swelling on the cladding normally happens if you dont seal the wood and you can seal it with paint or a wood stain that can protect it, so it needs to be a top quality product thats made to endure the weather and you will need to paint it or restain about every 10 years. the good thing about wood is if a bit of it does get damaged then normally you can just remove the damaged wood and replace it without having to do the whole wall. i like the wood look plaster board for cladding (duraplank) which is what im getting on my house being built. looks like wood cladding but less maintance, as with wood you have to sand it before you paint it but with plaster board a high pressure water hose will normally do the trick before you paint it and it tends not to swell but can go soft from water damage but can easily be replaced like wood. hope this all helps. That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17724 If this is a custom build then I would expect the builder to set out the door frame closer to the wall to avoid the gap between architrave and the wall and or specify… 9 8251 |